1984 riots case: Court satisfied with video recording facility

The trial against Congress leader Sajjan Kumar and two other accused in a 1984 anti-Sikh riots case will be videographed, a Delhi court today said after it expressed satisfaction over the arrangements being made for recording the proceedings.
District Judge Amar Nath saw the arrangements during the hearing in which two videographers installed cameras inside the courtroom.
The CBI's prosecutor and counsel representing the accused also said they were satisfied with the arrangements being put in place after which the court fixed the case for April 26 for recording of statement of prosecution witness.
"I am satisfied that now the proceedings of this case can be videographed," the judge said and asked the CBI to call its witness for recording of statement on the next date of hearing.

The case was transferred from Karkardooma court to Patiala House court here by the Delhi High Court which had directed the district judge to video record the proceedings at the cost of the accused.
On the last date of hearing, Kumar and other two accused, Brahmanand Gupta and Ved Prakash, had told the court that they were ready to bear the expenses of videography of proceedings in the matter.

These three accused are facing trial on charges of murder and rioting in the case pertaining to killing of Surjit Singh in Sultanpuri here.
The proceedings in the case were earlier stayed after the victim and complainant Joginder Singh had approached the high court seeking transfer of the case to another court alleging that the evidence was not being properly recorded.

The trial court had in July 2010 framed various charges,
including murder and rioting, against Kumar, Gupta, Peeriya, Khushal Singh and Ved Prakash in connection with Surjit's killing during the riots. Accused Khushal Singh and Peeriya have since died.
The court had also framed charges for offence of spreading enmity between two communities against the accused.
The case was currently at the stage of recording of prosecution evidence and deposition of fifth witness Sheela Kaur was being recorded.
Deposing as a prosecution witness, Kaur had on September 10 last year told the trial court that she had seen Kumar allegedly addressing the crowd and instigating the mob to kill them.